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runwayrunway · 9 months

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No. 36 - Riyadh Air

No, they are not changing their name to Saudi Arabian Airways, but there is a new development on the Saudi Arabian flag carrier front.

That's right, Saudia is dead, sayonara you w-

No. That isn't true, that was a joke. But what isn't a joke is that Riyadh Air is a planned second flag carrier for Saudi Arabia.

That's mostly a joke. Other countries have multiple flag carriers, though that comes with a couple caveats. Usually when this happens one is full-service and international while the other is domestic and/or low cost. The UAE has two flag carriers, but one is Dubai's and the other is Abu Dhabi's, which feels like an important distinction.

Saudi Arabia, on the other hand, just has decided they want to operate a second airline instead of doing the normal thing and putting all their resources into one really good airline. I don't understand it. The plan is to keep Saudia based in Jeddah while Riyadh Air is based in Riyadh...again, plenty of airlines have multiple hubs, so I don't see the point. They claim to be the first "digital-native airline", which is shaped like words yet means nothing (also, take that up with David Neeleman and Breeze). They've nabbed Etihad's old CEO and bought a bunch of 787s, and the stated goal is to become the largest carrier in the Gulf region at an unprecedented blistering pace in order to increase tourism. Given Emirates's numbers...well, it's probably still more likely to happen than a startup airline operating exclusively A380s managing to turn a profit, but that's not saying much.

Anyway, they've got a livery! Apparently this is the first of two, so expect a follow-up post when the second one drops, but for now there's plenty to talk about as is.

Unlike many - nay, most - of the subjects I cover, Riyadh Air has made me do absolutely zero research. You do get modern liveries like jetBlue and Lufthansa with little style guides to weakly attempt to back up their relatively mundane graphic design choices and things like condor and Icelandair's lovely little webpages, but Riyadh Air has done them all at least one if not several better by not only explaining in detail where they got their inspiration but also giving me a high-res 3D model of their airplane that I can rotate and zoom in and out on.

Take care; my computer is fairly underpowered and I do have an absurd number of tabs open most of the time, but this did crash my browser multiple times. Even just opening the main page of their website makes my CPU sound like it's spooling up for takeoff.

Okay. First I want to discuss the logo. They've got a video up on their thought process. I had transcribed it, but it looks better in motion, and thankfully they've stopped making it autoplay (presumably because, as I mentioned, this website absolutely guzzles processor as is) and in the process made it possible for me to simply left-click it off their website and into this post. Don't worry about it killing your browser. It's a normal video in a normal tumblr post without a 100 million dollar website chugging along in the background.

(I've taken some screenshots in case anyone does have trouble with the video.)

Now this is how you design a logo. The airplane window thing feels, in retrospect, so obvious I can't believe nobody had done it yet. I think it pairs gorgeously with the R, and I love that they chose to take inspiration from Arabic calligraphy, which is not only a massive point of pride for cultures which utilize the script but also just generally gorgeous. (It looks a bit like a stretched backwards hamza to me.) The shape of the bird's wing is the part I have the most trouble actually connecting to what I'm seeing, but sure, I'll give it to them. What the heck. This logo is nice.

I mentioned when discussing China Airlines that very few airlines use lavender as a primary color. Well, here's one that does! They actually discuss this on their website as well:

Inspired by the lavender blossoms that carpet Saudi Arabia, we've chosen this color because it symbolizes Saudi generosity and its authentic hospitality.

And this is, again, pretty fantastic. This is a thoughtful choice which isn't lazy or arbitrary. It has the potential to really pack a visual punch, and it does the thing I love when flag carriers do - references a feature of its home nation.

An upside to the fact that the livery page takes eons for my computer to chew on is that I get shown this lovely loading screen, which demonstrates the fantastic combination of blues and purples which make up the full scheme of this airline's colors. I love the combination of these colors. Light saturated colors are rare enough, but to see extremely dark blues and purples together like this is a rare delight. It definitely has the potential to get eyestrainy, but if done well it could look absolutely breathtaking.

But will it be done well? After all, a good idea isn't always well-implemented - see condor - and China Airlines's livery fails for me because it's barely got any lavender! So does Riyadh Air fall into the same pit? Let's check the browser-destroying 3D model they've lovingly provided us.

I love that 3D model, by the way. Instead of looking for a bunch of pictures of airplanes that happen to be in the correct lighting and at the right angle to demonstrate the exact thing I'm attempting to discuss I can just...zoom in while putting the plane at the specific angle I want. Normally I actually try not to rely too heavily on things like style guides because a piece of flat-colored concept art isn't actually going to communicate how a plane looks in motion and with light on it, but this is a really really robust model. Sure, it's not quite as maneuverable as I'd like it to be, it's still not a perfect representation of real life, but it's really well made. It even sways side to side a bit and if you zoom in close enough you can see they bothered to model the external sensors and the engines are even turning! Don't worry about the fact that if you zoom in even further you can tell the engines are just a fan suspended floating in a cowling. They even added ambient engine sounds. This model is so cool it legitimately took me several minutes of turning it around and muttering "wow..." under my breath before I realized the environment it was sitting in was just some very stretched and crunchy jpgs.

Mmm, those reflections.

To be honest, I also just enjoyed playing with this thing. It's almost like having a real model plane, but doesn't cost more money than I have! But enough of that.

So they definitely didn't chicken out when it came to the lavender. This plane is as purple as a Breeze Airways plane is blue (it is very purple). It's not just a purple tube, though. Even from a distance you can see that there's added detail here.

I love the wordmark, first off. They've really committed to the billboard look with this gigantic text in both English and Arabic. I love it. With such an overwhelming main body color it feels prudent to make sure the name is as visible as possible so it doesn't get lost in the shuffle.

And with this gigantic, recognizable logo plastered on the bottom you'd be able to identify it just as well from below (and this is zoomed out as far as the website let me!). In fact, the depth of the design really shines best from below. That's not necessarily a good thing, because your plane does have to be parked sometimes, but it's not a dealbreaker either. I just need to say that this is probably my favorite design for an engine nacelle, ever. It's gorgeous, and you can see in the first picture how well it flows into the main design. They don't go together quite as well from the bottom, and from below the plane does look a bit rear-heavy and the wordmark peering in is a bit awkward, but none of those ruin it. I would be stunned if I saw this fly overhead.

The website provides a few details about the design if you zoom in and click little black dots. It took me ages to realize this. It's neither intuitive nor accessible and I truly despise it, so I've taken the liberty of transcribing the bits that matter.

You can turn this plane in any which way you'd like, zoom in and out, and the details on the bottom never stop being beautiful and coherent. It truly does remind me of calligraphy. As they describe it:

Rooted in our Heritage The controlled, smooth linear profiles make up our signature "Canopy Twist". A perfect balance of our rich local culture and our modern global outlook, connecting the city of Riyadh to the world.

I love the name 'Canopy Twist', to be honest. And I love the design, too. My one criticism of it is the colors. They already have an established secondary shade of purple. That they used the text color for the highlights makes sense, but why couldn't they have used their lavender instead of a third shade of purple? In the quantity used for the underside it feels disconnected from the rest of the livery and they could have fixed that very easily by just...using their already existing secondary shade of purple? I think it would make for a very nice bridge to the tail as well, and it just feels like a colossal missed opportunity.

You may have noticed that the bulk of the fuselage body is a color a bit darker than what might conventionally be considered 'lavender'. This, too, is noted.

Indigo Livery Inspired by the ever-changing colors that paint the sky from dusk till dawn. A symbol of tranquility, harmony and integrity.

(This color is obviously purple, not indigo, but I will not belabor that point.)

I love the description, the idea of the transition between dusk and dawn. Much like the window as a basis for a logo, this makes me go "why in the world has nobody thought of that before? That's brilliant!"

It makes me think a bit more could have been done in the details. Maybe the canopy twist could be a gradient, like the gradient of the sky while the sun is rising? Just a thought.

And ultimately it's the canopy twist that is my only real sticking point with this livery. It is beautiful and unique and well-designed and it is simply a color that sticks out like a sore thumb. It's the only warm thing creeping into a design otherwise full of beautiful cool tones, it has gorgeous flow within itself but breaks up the feeling of consistency through the airframe as a whole, and I just...I really wish it were lavender.

If that's my main issue you can do a lot worse. And overall I do like the Riyadh Air livery. If that one detail was changed, this would easily be an A. This review would be all but uncritical. Except for the fact that it could use a bit of canopy twist up top, too (maybe just a tiny bit on the top of the nose, flowing in the same direction) in order to make the plane feel less rear-heavy (though it already beats out the vast majority of liveries in that sense), the issue with the color is my only big criticism. But it's the main detail of the design, isn't it?

It's wild. So much of the time my reviews are "good details, bad when you step back". But this is the opposite. Fantastic, but there's that one detail that sticks with you. And the details by and large are far from bad too. I mentioned the nacelles, and I think it very elegantly transitions the tail into the body. It would be more elegant if the design on the body was the same lavender, though!

A few more nitpicks: the centering of the logo on the tailfin is a little strange, the tail would look better if it had a bit of a gradient to make it less matte-seeming, and the combined effect of those is very luxury-hotel-towel-monogram. Okay. I'm done complaining.

So it falls short of being one of the best I've ever reviewed, but I still really, really like it. The calligraphy inspiration creates these elegant sweeping lines that are perfectly at home on the 787. The deep purple looks luxurious despite the fact that Riyadh Air doesn't plan to offer first class. It's eyecatching. It's stylish.

And, now that I've covered all this, let's look at the colors in person! That's right, they've already had a plane delivered in full Riyadh Air colors.

The deep purple with the lighter canopy twist, combined with the tiny white dots of the various probes and such, make this plane look like an animal camouflaging itself against the night sky in a place untouched by light pollution. The light lavender contrasts sharply in this particular image, sharply enough that it feels like a slice cut out of the plane.

This continues to be an issue from other angles and in other lightings, but the cool-toned light makes this purple look like true indigo and the blueish cast improves the look, giving an almost fluorescent appearance to the transition between the twist and the tail. The way the light reflects off the dark paint makes it look rippling and shifting and alive in a way it never could off white.

In shadow, the plane looks as dark as a city sky. In light, the vibrant purple of a fresh eggplant. This paint job adapts wonderfully to its environment. Much like Vietnam Airlines's, each light brings out a unique beauty.

And sometimes, the tail, detached though it may look, does so in the way a shining arm of a spiral galaxy neatly transitions into the black expanse around it.

Riyadh Air's planes range from ultraviolet to supervoid, but they are never lost in their environment. The principles behind the design remain consistent, and beautiful, and alone in a sky full of planes which refuse to embrace the dark skies they fly in on red-eye journeys.

Ultimately, I think Riyadh Air's livery feels a bit overdesigned. They added one color too many, and a few decisions feel like they don't belong together in the same picture. Just think about the amount of colors here, the balance of major features, and think about Vietnam Airlines, and you'll see what I mean. I'm not a fan of minimalism, but sometimes the only way to keep a story straight is to minimize loose ends. A secret becomes exponentially more likely to be exposed with each new person who learns it.

But before I looked closer, before I zoomed in and out on a little 3D model while my computer screamed, I saw this livery for the first time and my jaw hit the floor. And the average person isn't going to think about this the way I do. Ultimately, my critical eye is usually something I defer to, but I can't argue with the fact that this livery is going to be to someone else what China Airlines is to me. And, like China Airlines, when they come back and look closer at it they'll notice it wasn't as perfect as they thought, but...we've come so far, if this is someone's China Airlines. And as much as I nitpick at details the package counts, too. If you asked me why China Airlines got a C- instead of a D+, my honest reason would be...it struck me enough that I singled it out to begin with, even though that started to fall apart when I looked closer.

Why am I giving Riyadh Air an A- instead of a B+? Because this plane will stun people 5,000 feet below it, and they'll think to themselves that it's the prettiest plane they've ever seen.

#tarmac fashion week #era: 2020s #grade: a-#region: middle east and north africa #region: saudi arabia #riyadh air #flag carriers #at least ostensibly flag carriers.

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sonego · 3 months

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@.middleastarchive: "Football كرة القدم" delves into the representation of football in the Middle East and North Africa, extending beyond the limitations of sport to become an integral aspect of the region’s culture. The publication is motivated by a love of the game and a desire to showcase an underrepresented football culture in the MENA region. The book includes photographs taken between late 1980s up to 2023, in Morocco, Algeria, Iraq, Tunisia, Syria, Lebanon, Turkey, Egypt, Oman, Yemen, UAE, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Kurdistan, and other countries in the region, by a wide range of photographers including some of our favourites, Abbas, Nikos Economopoulos, Karim Sahib, Jinane Ennasri, Marco Di Lauro, Alex Webb, and Salah Malkawi. Book designed by Akaar @.akaar "Football" includes an Introduction written by founder & curator Romaisa Baddar and copy edited by Dalia Al-Dujaili @.dalia.aldu , translated by Mourad Nusair @.mourad_nusair 21 x 26 cm | “8x10” Linen-bound hardback l 126 pages Dual language English/Arabic Self published

#middle east #north africa #football #palestine #mena region #football culture #idk how to tag this but i hope anyone who could be interested sees this!#i looooove the middle east archive #i follow their ig and they always post such great photos #when i saw this i was like oh my god for me!!!!!! as a lover of football (obviously) and appreciator of photography and person interested #in preserving palestinian culture as much as i possibly can with the means i have #and also just generally interested in football cultures different from my own from all over the world!!!!!#considering buying this as a treat to myself when i get my paycheck in around a week... it just looks so beautiful and i don't actually own #any photography book i think? i've always wanted one but they're just SO expensive you know i can never justify it #ANYWAY rambling but. even if you don't care about the book go look at the photos middle east archive post they're very beautiful #btw that third photo i love it so much 🥹🥹

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neyatimes · 10 months

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Iran's morality police resume headscarf patrols, state media says

CNN — Iran’s morality police will resume patrols to make women comply with strict Islamic dress codes, state media reported Sunday, 10 months after the death of a young woman in their custody triggered nationwide protests. Saeid Montazeralmahdi, spokesman for Iran’s enforcement body, Faraja, said police will restart vehicle and foot patrols across the country from Sunday, the state-run Fars…

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#brand safety-nsf crime #brand safety-nsf sensitive #continents and regions #crime #iab-crime #iran #law enforcement #law enforcement and corrections #middle east #middle east and north africa #policing and police forces

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smarterthantheaverageloser · 2 years

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Hey Jews, do you ever just lie down for a bit and feel yourself be crushed under the immeasurable, insurmountable weight of All That We Have Lost

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creativitytoexplore · 2 years

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A barrier of fear has been broken in Iran. The regime may be at a point of no return | CNN

CNN — A woman dressed in black raises a framed portrait of her son, Siavash Mahmoudi, in the air as she paces the sidewalk in Iran’s capital, Tehran. “I am not scared of anyone. They told me to be silent. I will not be,” the woman seen in a viral social media video yells, her voice fraught with emotion. “I will carry my son’s picture everywhere. They killed him.” Mahmoudi’s mother is among…

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#amnesty international #ayatollah ali khamenei #civil disobedience #civil unrest #conflicts and war #continents and regions #internet and www #iran #middle east #middle east and north africa #non-profit and ngo organizations #political figures - intl #protests and demonstrations #social media #society #technology #tehran #unrest

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theusarticles · 2 years

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'They hated him.' Former subordinate recalls serving under Russia's new top commander in Ukraine | CNN

‘They hated him.’ Former subordinate recalls serving under Russia’s new top commander in Ukraine | CNN

CNN — Russian President Vladimir Putin’s devastating war on Ukraine is faltering. Now, there’s a new general in charge – with a reputation for brutality. After Ukraine recently recaptured more territory than Russia’s army took in the last six months, Russia’s Ministry of Defense last Saturday named Sergey Surovikin as its new overall commander for operations in the war. Notably, he…

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#armed forces #conflicts and war #continents and regions #eastern Europe #europe #Middle East #middle east and north africa #military #Political Figures - Intl #Russia #Russia-Ukraine conflict #Syria #Ukraine #Unrest #Vladimir Putin

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lemedstudent2021 · 3 months

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Have you heard about Carbombya, a canon Middle Eastern country in Transformers?

Boycott Transformers.

Transformers: Bigots in Disguise

TIL what Carbombya is, and that its population is 4000 people and 10,000 camels, and frankly i dont know if i should laugh or cry.

apparently the franchise has an extensive history of being racist and promoting problematic stereotypes, this is merely one example.

i honestly have no idea what the people who greenlighted this bs were thinking, especially since their audience is kids 6 and above.

#answered #transformers #boycott transformers #tumblr asks #boycotting #boycot #boycott israel #since were at it #they even got it wrong; the fictional country is based on libya which is in north africa #not the middle east #racist *and* incompetent?#the 'republic' even comes with its own dictator #who also conveniently has a very stereotypical (and incorrect) name #whodve thunk #middle east #north africa #mena region

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ganeshtbrc · 8 months

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Global 2D Barcode Reader Market Overview – Market Growth Analysis And Key Drivers

The - Asia-Pacific2D Barcode Reader Global Market Report 2023, provides comprehensive information on the 2D barcode readers market across 60+ geographies in the seven regions, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, North America, South America, Middle East, Africa for the 27 major global industries. The report covers a ten year historic period – 2010-2021, and a ten year forecast period – 2023-2032.

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As per The Business Research Company’s 2D Barcode Reader Global Market Report 2023, the market size grew from $6.35 billion in 2022 to $6.87 billion in 2023 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 8.2%. The Russia-Ukraine war disrupted the chances of global economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, at least in the short term. The war between these two countries has led to economic sanctions on multiple countries, a surge in commodity prices, and supply chain disruptions, causing inflation across goods and services, causing inflation across goods and services and affecting many markets across the globe. The global 2D barcode reader market size report is expected to grow to $9.31 billion in 2027 at a CAGR of 7.9%.

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#provides comprehensive information on the 2D barcode readers market across 60+ geographies in the seven regions #Western Europe #Eastern Europe #North America #South America #Middle East #Africa

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101now · 9 months

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Watch: Netanyahu on whether Israel is less safe today because of his judicial overhaul

Hear Netanyahu respond to judicial overhaul plans amid protests In an interview with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu discusses his plans for Israel, including the controversial judicial reform law that has sparked protests. Source link

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worldspotlightnews · 1 year

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Iran installs cameras to identify women breaking dress code | CNN

CNN — Iranian authorities are to use cameras in public places to identify women who violate the country’s hijab law, state media reported. Women in Iran risk arrest for not covering their hair. Many have been defying the mandatory dress code as part of the widespread protests that followed the death of a young woman in custody for allegedly violating hijab rules. Authorities, though, show no…

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#continents and regions #demographic groups #domestic alerts #domestic-international news #females (demographic group)#iran #middle east #middle east and north africa #muslim people #population and demographics #society

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runwayrunway · 9 months

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No. 35 - Saudia/Saudi Arabian Airlines

This is the third of three requests from @twtd11. A very serendipitously timed one, because I had just begun researching for this post when it came in.

I would just like to take a moment to thank you for the requests. Everyone, but specifically twtd11 for sending in multiple. I love writing these, and there are so many potentially juicy topics out there. There are between 5,000 and 5,500 airlines currently with ICAO codes, some of which have had multiple liveries throughout history or even multiple in active use, before even mentioning the defunct ones. There is a non-negligible degree of decision paralysis that comes with choosing subjects, and requests help steer me towards topics and trains of thought I'm interested in discussing. Not to mention, of course, that I get to cover things that people are actively interested in seeing. I appreciate them a lot.

Okay. Aside...aside. Let's talk about Saudia, or Saudi Arabian Airlines, whichever one it is at any given time, the flag carrier of Saudi Arabia.

Let me propose a hypothetical to you. Say you were one of the richest countries on the entire planet, strategically located somewhere that both has most major cities in the world within range for a nonstop flight and enough oil that it basically prints money. You're trying to participate in geopolitics and have the world's third largest immigrant population. You are the site of the largest pilgrimage in the world, now largely conducted by air. You have a flag carrier, like most countries, and over half your fleet is large twin-aisle jets ready to be plopped down at airports all over the world.

You'd want to make them.....look really interesting and striking and memorable, right? Really represent your country's culture and heritage and remind the people exhaustedly looking out of the window of a plane that's been baking on the tarmac for an hour of how big and important your airline is?

I just think I would have made different choices here.

Saudia is obviously the flag carrier of Saudi Arabia. I think the government tried to privatise it at some point but I don't think they've actually finished that process. It was founded in 1945 as Saudi Arabian Airlines, and was run by TWA despite being wholly government-owned.

Saudia is really weird.

It was named Saudi Arabian Airlines until 1972, when it became Saudia. In 1996 it was renamed back to Saudia Arabian Airlines, and it was then renamed back again to Saudia in 2012. This is definitely confusing and/or silly. It also makes it comparably harder to date historical mentions of it just by name the way it does hearing USAir vs US Airways. I even see sources, including relatively journalistic ones, incorrectly use the anachronistic name anyway. Saudia is the better name, in my opinion. If you think 'Saudia' is shorter than 'Saudi Arabian Airlines', compare 'السعودية' to 'الخطوط الجوية العربية السعودية'. 'al-Ḫuṭūṭ al-Jawwiyyah al-ʿArabiyyah as-Suʿūdiyyah'. The way that proper nouns work in Arabic make an already long name completely unwieldy, while Saudia is completely regular and manageable. It's a bit pointless to discuss, though. The two have become interchangeable at this point. The switches have become more and more frequent over time, too. I'm taking bets for what happens in 2026 - are they going to become Saudi Arabian Airlines again, or will they daringly pick a third option and become Saudia Arabian Airlines? (They will not do this, and they're Saudia to me forever anyway.)

This is sort of a trend with Saudia. They have such a non-brand that they keep doing 'brand overhauls' which are negligibly different from each other. This applies to their liveries too. A new Saudia livery is the equivalent of a Fall/Winter collection from the Gap. It's...the Gap. New Saudia livery? Well...it's an airplane livery with Saudia branding. That's just not anything.

image: ted quackenbush

image: ruthas

Hey, everyone! We added a livery revision! We had a cheatline and now it's a hockey stick!

We added more stripes! Aren't we innovative?

I actually do love the combination of these specific blues and greens, and would love to see it used on a competent livery, but attached to nothing it's just so sad. The same goes for the typeface used. Gorgeous, but meaningless. It was actually decent for the time, but...look, I'm not here to talk about it, and given what's coming it's hard to be too nice to it even though the colorscheme is genuinely gorgeous.

I also think this illustrates fantastically my point about Saudia vs Saudi Arabian Airlines. In the pictures above, each side has one of the names written in English and the other in Arabic, and...I think you can see for yourself.

This livery is so incredibly boring that it somehow looks worse on the TriStar than the 737, which is so unusual! The more interesting shape of the TriStar just lets on how painfully boring this is.

But that was then. Where are we now?

Ah...not much better. It's an upside-down United situation, half white and half off-white, which can look classy in some cases but in this example just looks dated. You have to do something to distinguish a livery like this. A nice color scheme (which this gold-and-dark-blue certainly is) and a gorgeous typeface can't save it.

This picture gives a fantastic view of how gorgeous the cream, gold, green, and dark blue used are. If only they were used in a way that accomplishes something! This is a travesty of great details which are just put down on a piece of paper and left to sit! Good details mean nothing if they're all you have. It just makes this livery all the more tragic.

('God Bless You' is not the name of the plane, just something written on all Saudia planes. Bless you too, HZ-HM1A.)

Why would you ever. Why would you ever color only the top of the fin on an MD-11, and then leave the engine flesh-color. Did not a single person realize that the ratio of blue to cream this creates looks terrible?

This is so frustrating. Every feature here is visually pleasing, and the plane itself sort of is unless you look close, but it's so nothing, so cowardly, that I become angry. This is bereft of design and creativity, despite having all the features it needs to succeed if they were applied decently. (Seriously, that typeface is beautiful.)

The Arab States of the Persian Gulf are some of the wealthiest countries in the world. Their airlines tend to be luxurious, with brand new fleets of well-equipped airliners replete with some of the world's best first-and-business-class cabins for the discerning travelling millionaire. I've never flown with one of them, because I am not a millionaire (or particularly discerning when it comes to cabin service, in all honesty), but it absolutely does show in their liveries. Each of them carries itself with a unique sort of careless gravitas, like a bed with a carved walnut headboard and brocade sheets, neatly made in the morning by an underpaid and mistreated migrant housekeeper.

Compare Saudia. The elegant frame of the Dreamliner given the livery of a mid-90s US carrier which would go out of business before the mid-aughts. This is non-design.

I mention, when I outline my grading system, that a D grade is not only for liveries which are ugly or badly designed. That's how I've ended up using it so far, most of the time. After all, I mostly discuss liveries that are interesting, since there's more to talk about and more to motivate me to write a post. And I do think Saudia is somewhat interesting case of a livery which is pretty, which has nice features, which is...inoffensive. Yet it is so cowardly that I truly do not believe it is satisfactory. It's almost a little unsettling, how there's nothing about this livery I specifically dislike yet the complete package is so reprehensible to me.

Final Grade: D+

Well, okay, I'm done with this livery. Tomorrow's bonus post will be about a much more interesting Saudi airline, and we'll have a post later today about a much more interesting aspect of Saudia's design, but for the moment thankfully we're done with this...

...this is a wet lease. They've been wet leasing planes to meet hajj demand, and those planes are primarily white. But for a moment I thought this was actually a new livery and almost began crying.

Okay. We're okay. This is their most recent non-lease delivery. We're okay. Don't scare me like that, Saudia! Geez!

#tarmac fashion week #grade: d+#era: 2000s #era: 2010s #era: 2020s #region: middle east and north africa #region: saudi arabia #saudia #flag carriers #requests

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reportwire · 1 year

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Blast kills Taliban governor in his office in Afghanistan | CNN

CNN — A Taliban governor in northern Afghanistan has been killed by an explosion in his office, police officials have told CNN. Mohammad Dawood Muzammil, the governor of Balkh province, died along with two others in the blast on Thursday, said the provincial police force’s spokesman Asif Waziri. The cause of the explosion remains unclear, but Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid said the…

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neyatimes · 9 months

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Israeli protesters stage 'day of disruption' against controversial judicial overhaul

Jerusalem CNN — Tens of thousands of demonstrators took to the streets in Israel on Tuesday in the biggest weekday protest in months against the government’s renewed moves to overhaul the country’s judicial system. They snarled traffic in Tel Aviv and caused chaos at Ben Gurion airport, marched at the Supreme Court in Jerusalem and lined up on Mediterranean beaches for what they called a day…

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newsbites · 1 year

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Several sub-Saharan countries, including Ivory Coast, Mali, Guinea and Gabon, are helping their citizens return from Tunisia following controversial remarks from the country’s president last month concerning illegal immigration into the North African country.

In a meeting of Tunisia’s National Security Council on February 21, President Kais Saied described alleged illegal border crossings from sub-Saharan Africa into the country as a “criminal enterprise hatched at the beginning of this century to change the demographic composition of Tunisia.”

Saied said the continuous illegal immigration aims to turn Tunisia into “only an African country with no belonging to the Arab and Muslim worlds,” adding that the ones behind this scheme are involved in human trafficking.

Tunisian democracy in crisis after president ousts government

The African Union strongly condemned the statements by the Tunisian government, calling them “racial” and “shocking.”

#africa #continents and regions #domestic alerts #domestic-international news #middle east and north africa #anti-black racism #migration #Tunisia #news #via Energy100FM #world news

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usanewsology · 1 year

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Sub-Saharan African countries repatriating citizens from Tunisia after 'shocking' statements from country's president | CNN

CNN — Several sub-Saharan countries, including Ivory Coast, Mali, Guinea and Gabon, are helping their citizens return from Tunisia following controversial remarks from the country’s president last month concerning illegal immigration into the North African country. In a meeting of Tunisia’s National Security Council on February 21, President Kais Saied described alleged illegal border…

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#africa #continents and regions #domestic alerts #domestic-international news #middle east and north africa #northern africa #tunisia

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arabian-batboy · 16 days

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If a war between Iran and Israel really will emerge it will not just be Iranians who will suffer, but every country in the region will be somewhat involved, which includes some nations that are already declared as one of the poorest, most war-torn and starved nations in the world. All of whom all be completely unprotected while Israel wreak havoc on their citizens (excluding those who live in puppet-states aligned with the US) with full-support and funding from the US and other Western superpowers to ensure that no matter happens, their influence and interests in the Middle East will not be lost and they'e willing to sacrifice the lives of as many non-Israeli civilians as they want to in order to achieve their goal.

This is one of the reasons they implanted this cancerous tumor called Israel in our region, to act as military base that cause instability and state-sponsored terrorism in the area so that it would be easier for them to exploit these failed-states that surround it and the best part is? All they have to do to maintain this military base is give them a couple billions and some weapons yearly so that those blood-lust Zionist settlers can do all the dirty work for them, that's NOTHING compared to the costs and casualties of other wars that had the US be directly involved in like Vietnam or Iraq or Afghanistan (off the record; but that's exactly why they're using Saudi Arabia to indirectly destroy Yemen, they learned their lesson, its always better to use a proxy.)

If a war breaks out? The US will not be in any real danger, because they're half-way across the world and all the fighting will be in West Asia and North Africa, far away from them. No American building is in danger of being destroyed, no American city is under the threat of being bombed, the average American citizen will not be in any danger and can just continue living their life like normal, hence why they're always the first ones to start making those WW3 memes, because they're not the ones in danger of dying.

This is precisely why the US's imperialism in the Middle East hasn't slowed down in decades, because they do not suffer any negative consequences from it. All the destruction and casualties they cause is inflicted solely on the native people and the native people only, for the US, they only have things to gain from these wars, whether it was stolen resources or more instability that will further their control and influence in the area.

The US, like every single oppressive empire in history, will not suddenly grow a conscious over-night and immediately halt all their wrongdoings simply because they don't want the innocent people in other countries to suffer anymore. The only way to stop their imperialism is to have them believe that its not worth it anymore, to have the cons of being involved in our region out-weight the pros.

Because at the moment if the only cons here are "innocent Muslims will die"? Then those motherfucking colonizers will NOT stop, they will only stop once it reaches a point where its also the colonizers who are dying alongside the native population and the first step for that to happen is to dismantle this giant settler-colony built square in the middle of our region and forcing these Western Superpowers to choose between continuously spending trillions of dollars to maintain their interests directly or to fucking leave us alone already and save those trillions for something else.

#anti US #anti israel #anti zionist #anti Israeli #anti zionisim #iran #gaza #palestine #palestinian #yemen #joe biden

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